Hello, Randy. Are you randy, Randy?<\/em>
Uh, sometimes. (We laughed.) And you are?
William. William Shakespeare. But you can call me Willie.<\/em>
(Laughing) Well, Willie, a lot of people call me Willie, too, so let\u2019s not get confused!
Ah . . . Confusion now hath made his masterpiece!<\/em>
So you\u2019re William Shakespeare?
In the flesh.<\/em>
Yeah. Sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/AdobeStock_Shakespeare-copy-2-scaled.jpg?ssl=1\")
<\/a>Our doubts are traitors. Doubt thou the stars are fire; doubt that sun doth not move; doubt truth to be a liar?<\/em> \u2026and that\u2019s the View from The Balcony.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Randy Weeks is a Licensed Professional Counselor, a Certified Shamanic Life Coach, an ordained minister, singer-songwriter, actor (not Shakespearian), writer, and a former triathlete. He may be reached at: randallsweeks@gmail.com. Most of Shakespeare\u2019s words in this column were taken from the plays Macbeth, Henry VIII, Hamlet, King Richard III, Measure for Measure, Julius Caesar, and As You Like It. Other parts were bastardized by Randy Willie.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n William Shakespeare, The Bard, was in town for the Ole Miss-LSU game. He sauntered up the stairs at<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":262,"featured_media":118752,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11902],"tags":[5,4,10286,8213,3,10878,8259],"class_list":["post-152294","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-randy-weeks","tag-mississippi","tag-oxford","tag-randy-weeks","tag-shakespeare","tag-the-local-voice","tag-the-view-from-the-balcony","tag-william-shakespeare"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/ViewFromTheBalcony-2.jpg?fit=996%2C650&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152294","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=152294"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152294\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":152298,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152294\/revisions\/152298"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/118752"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=152294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=152294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=152294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Uh, no.
Then doubt not I am who I sayest I am.<\/em>
Ok, Willie. What brings you to Oxford?
Good company, good wine, good welcome can make good people.
<\/em>That\u2019s from Henry VIII.
I know. I wrote the thing.
<\/em>Of course you did. Have you ever heard Herman\u2019s Hermits song about that?
Why, yes!<\/em> (Singing) I\u2019m \u2018enery the eigth I yam. \u2018enery the eighth I yam I yam. Now, I must say, this is not the Oxford of my home country.
<\/em>How so?
Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy, but not expressed in fancy\u2014rich, not gaudy, for the apparel oft proclaims the man, or the woman in this case. That being said, this might be the best balcony scene since my Romeo and Juliet. Watching all the loveliness from this crow\u2019s nest, why, I am King Leer!<\/em> (Slaps his knee and laughs)
<\/em>No doubt. Are you here to see the Rebels play the Tigers?
Yes. And I am for the Rebels. I\u2019ve written many rebels into my plays\u2014Brutus and Cassius, Hotspur and Prince Hal, and Katherine, for instance.
<\/em>Ah. Makes sense.
As you like it.
<\/em>Serious question: What do you think about the state of the world today?
The world is grown so bad, that wrens make prey where eagles dare not perch. O, it is excellent to have a giant\u2019s strength; but it is tyrannous to use it like a giant. There is a tide in the affairs of men, which taken at the flood, leads on to fortune. Omitted, all the voyage of their life is bound in shallows and in miseries. On such a full sea are we now afloat. And we must take the current when it serves, or lose our ventures.
<\/em>That sounds quite ominous. Certainly not much ado about nothing.
Not at all, Randy Willie.
<\/em>More like a tempest.
I couldn\u2019t have said it better.
<\/em>What about censorship? I know you framed many what some would call \u201csubversive\u201d messages in your work. Lately two of our most famous comedian\/satirists have temporarily lost their shows because of things they\u2019ve said that angered the powers that be.
Yes, I did that and I got away with it. So did Jonathan Swift in Gulliver\u2019s Travels, as did others. You have the freedom of speech in your Constitution, so I\u2019m guessing that tyranny must be at foot at the highest levels.
<\/em>I agree. Then what are we to do?
One cannot protest too much, methinks. Fear kills action, but action kills fear.
<\/em>You speak a high and lofty truth.
Ah. That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.
<\/em>It\u2019s time for me to go, Willie. It was beyond my pleasure to meet and talk with you. Enjoy the game. If the Rebels win it will be more than a midsummer\u2019s night dream.
To sleep, perchance to dream. We are such stuff as dreams are made on.
<\/em>I bow to thee, Great Bard. Now I take my leave.
Fare thee well, Randy Willie; thou art a valiant old fart.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"